


If I'd Lost Another

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Series: Culture Shock [4]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Action/Adventure, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst and Feels, F/M, First Kiss, Fourth Doctor Era, Gun Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-11 22:39:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1178798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When The Doctor is gravely wounded in a firefight, Sarah Jane's truest, deepest feelings for him are revealed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If I'd Lost Another

"Halt!" nine voices snapped in unison. The Doctor and Sarah Jane paused just before entering the throne room of Rozxil when they heard the unmistakable sound of weapons cocking.

In one fluid motion The Doctor turned and held up his hands in surrender. "Hello," he greeted the Rozxilon robots with one of his wide, charming smiles. "I'm The Doctor and this is Sarah Jane Smith."

"Searching data banks," the head droid droned. His glowing white eyes suddenly flashed red. "The Doctor, enemy of the Rozxilons! Sarah Jane Smith, enemy of the Rozxilons!"

"But how is that possible? We've only just arrived!" Sarah asked The Doctor in a frantic whisper. He didn't reply, for he was too busy studying the guards. 

"That speech pattern—" he muttered in confusion.

"Doctor!" Sarah Jane lunged, forcing him down just as a laser beam struck the wall.

The Doctor hollered the expected words: "Run, Sarah!" and they took off down the long hall with the guards in pursuit.

"How can we be enemies to them?!" Sarah Jane persisted. "None of the flesh-and-bone guards went berserk on us!"

"The robots might have been reprogrammed by one of my enemies," The Doctor answered as they neared the front doors. As their feet touched the dirt of the outside, The Doctor called out an explanation to the guards who'd let them in.

When they heard the robots were hostile, the Rozxilons whirled and opened fire on them, but the robots had deadly, precise aim and soon downed them. 

The chase continued toward the Rozxil Sea, its waves hissing and fuming as lasers struck the surface. The Doctor and Sarah stumbled slightly on the beach rocks, but they didn’t slow.

"The TARDIS!" Sarah Jane cried, pointing toward it. She took the key The Doctor offered her and began working at the lock. _Almost there_ —

"Get down!"

Sarah barely had time to process even these simple words before The Doctor's bulk slammed into her, easily propelling her to the ground. The perilous laser beams previously aimed at Sarah drove into The Doctor instead. He spun across the slippery stones, a strangled cry torn from his throat as he rolled toward the ocean. 

"Doctor!" Sarah barely took caution to avoid the fire of the robots as she pushed herself back up and began to crawl toward the Time Lord. The skin of her knees tore against the sharp rocks, but she didn't care.

When Sarah reached The Doctor, she felt a wave of panic wash over her. He lay face down, but his spindly arms and legs were splayed at angles grotesquely opposite the position. What chilled Sarah's insides, however, were the sandy jelly babies scattered about and the yards of his scarf twisting and trailing over ragged clothing and singed skin. It was something Sarah had never pictured even in her worst nightmares of The Doctor's death—that things so precious to him would lie as limply as he himself...

Sarah turned him over and, for an eternity that might only have been a single second, her heart stopped. His face was covered in blood. Lots of it.

A laser skimmed Sarah's arm, causing her to jerk from her reverie of horror with a yelp. With the greatest burst of adrenaline she'd ever seen in herself, Sarah Jane hauled The Doctor up and dragged him toward the TARDIS. 

The key finally turned in the lock. Sarah threw herself and The Doctor inside the ship, slammed the door, and then ran to the control panel, pressing buttons at random. To her relief, the engines began to whoosh. 

"Don't worry, Doctor," Sarah whispered into her friend's dark curls as she knelt and slipped her arms round him, much more gently than before. "We're going to be alright."

~|~

The Doctor had no qualms about groaning as consciousness returned painfully. He twitched on whatever soft surface held him, trying to sit up. It was a challenge, as a constricting force that’d been pulled up to his neck held him down.

A blanket, it turned out to be. The Doctor stared around with glazed, half-open eyes, eventually realizing he was in the TARDIS infirmary. 

Sarah. Where was Sarah?! Terror struck The Doctor and he thrashed against the blanket, trying to spot his companion. With a bang he landed on the floor, which hurt so much that all he could gasp out was, "Rassilon’s name!"

In the other room, Sarah Jane heard the commotion and rushed in. "Oh, Doctor, what are you thinking?!"

Latching onto her hand as soon as it was in reach, The Doctor used it to pull himself somewhat upright and made a go for the door. He needed to get up, needed to steer the TARDIS—

"Oh, no, you don't! Back to bed!" Sarah Jane commanded, slipping her arms under his and pushing him back onto the mattress. He flopped futilely about, looking for the world like a dying fish, before curling into himself and falling again into oblivion.

When he woke a second time, The Doctor found Sarah reading in a chair by his bedside. Unable to muster enough energy for another escape attempt, he tested his voice instead. 

"S-Sarah," he croaked. 

She instantly looked up from her book and put a pacifying hand on his shoulder. "Don't try to move," she said sternly. 

"Couldn't even if I wanted to. What happened?"

Sarah audibly swallowed hard. "You...you got shot and smacked your head back on Rozxil."

"Oh, yes...the Cybermen," The Doctor mused under his breath.

"What?" Sarah was bewildered.

"I recognized the speech pattern of the Rozxil robots and realized they were reconfigured Cybermen—that's why we were in their data banks as enemies," The Doctor explained. He was going to continue, but then he saw the haunted gleam that had come into his companion's eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Doctor...”

The Doctor's brows knit in concern as he tipped her chin back up. "Sarah...you weren't worried for me, were you?"

"Of course I was!" Sarah Jane burst out. "You looked like you were dead!"

"There's no need to waste worry on me," The Doctor said after a moment. "If I'd been dead, I simply would've—"

"Regenerated," Sarah finished, nodding jerkily. "That's what I was afraid of! I've already lost one Doctor I loved and if I'd lost another so soon after—!"

"Loved?" The Doctor echoed in astonishment. 

Sarah turned crimson, for he had caught the one word she hadn't meant to say, at least not for a long while yet...

"Loved," The Doctor repeated again, softer and more deliberately. He stared at her for a few moments before asking slowly, "Did you... _do_ you love me, Sarah?" 

Sarah gulped before giving an infinitesimal nod. Before she quite realized what she was doing, she leaned forward and planted a kiss on his lips.

“If we'd never met,” Sarah announced hurriedly, “I think I would have known that my life wasn't complete. And I would have wandered around the world searching for you, even if I didn't know who I was looking for.”

Then she leapt to her feet and dashed down the hall, slamming the door to her bedroom.

The Doctor lay there in stunned breathlessness for a few moments before he nodded hesitantly. "Well. This changes things."

 

 


End file.
